Your First Term: A Transitional and Sacred Space

I still remember stepping off the plane on that first day—heart pounding, mind racing, full of anticipation for all that God had in store. Now, two years later, as we prepare to return to our passport country, I realize how much this journey has changed us. The first term wasn’t just about learning a new language or adjusting to a new culture. Our first term was a transitional and sacred space where God reshaped us from the inside out, using every challenge and joy to form us into His vessels for the work ahead.

We will go back to our passport country as different people than when we left; more patient, less prideful, and a greater awareness that Christ always walks with us. The first term is a transitional yet sacred space where God has formed our identity and prepared us for our future ministry.

Sinai and Transitional Spaces

This past week, I read an excellent book by Carmen Joy Ames entitled, Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. It is an excellent book and I would highly commend it to you. The book points to the Israelites experience at Sinai to be the identity forming moment that influences the story of Israel, and the church, in profound ways.

The book stresses that Sinai was a liminal space that critically shaped Israelites identity as God’s People.

What is a Liminal Space?

A liminal space, the term having been popularized in anthropology by people like Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, refers to “threshold” moments. When I stand in the threshold of the door to my house, I am no longer outside, but I have also yet to enter the house. The threshold is a liminal space.

When we will travel back to our passport country we will have to enter an airport. Once we clear customs we are no longer in our host country, but we also have yet to enter in another country. Airports are an example of liminal spaces.

There are many other examples of liminal spaces, and many are unique to individual cultures. Rituals such as funerals, weddings, and other rites of passage are liminal in that they mark the transition of exiting one state and entering into another.

The First Term and Sinai

Sinai was a liminal space. They had been delivered by God in the Exodus from Egypt, but they were not yet ready to enter into the promised land. They were the People of God, yet Sinai marked their transition from slaves in Egypt into God’s people and possession.

Like Sinai, your first term is a wilderness where God shapes your identity. It’s not just a pause at the threshold before entering the ‘promised land’ of ministry but a sacred space where God meets you, teaches you, and prepares you for what’s ahead.

Though at times we look with expectation into the next the next season, we do ourselves a disservice if we do not honor and take advantage of the transitional yet sacred space we are inhabiting. After all, God is present in that liminal space and he wants to do something in us that will prepare us for our future ministry.

The Global Worker in Transitional Spaces

As Global Workers, we routinely face transitional seasons. Many must go back to their passport country for a period of time to fundraise or rest. This is a transitional space. At times we find ourselves between assignments, another transitional space.

The first term is not the only transitional space that Global Workers face, it is just the first of many. Our whole lives are normally in some type of transition.

What can we learn from the People of God at Sinai to help us better understand our own times of transition? For the sake of this blog post, I will only deal with the first term as the transitional space, but feel free to draw your own conclusions for your own situation.

Recognize the First Term as a Sacred Space

While the first term is full of ups and downs, we have to recognize it as a sacred space where God is forming us.

The People of God came to Sinai as slaves, and they left as sons and daughters of God. At Sinai they received the covenant, the Law, and the Tabernacle. God revealed himself at Sinai and then formed them into a people that would be ready to enter into the Promised Land and become his agents of blessing to the nations.

God has something that he wants to do through you, but first he has to do something in you.

In the first term you will learn language, you will begin to understand the culture, and you will make lasting relationships. However, you will also be driven to the very end of your own ability, driven to climb the proverbial mountain, seek God like you never have before, and come out of the experience a different person.

Before I became a Global Worker, I was a full-time minister in a staff pastoral role. My life was full of ministry and doing things for God. Itineration was non-stop doing. We came to our host country and it was just a lot of being. Learning language, learning culture, and living life with people. We left our country as adults, but we landed like children, unable to communicate our most basic needs. The first term has been an identity forming season that has been hard, but was also has been sacred and necessary.

The first term is not easy, yet it a necessary. The first term is a transitional and sacred space where God forms us for future ministry. Make up your mind to see it as sacred. Live with the awareness that God is teaching you something in this season. Choose to see the difficulties as God’s chisel forming you in this liminal season.

Document the Lessons God Teaches You

God taught the People of God so much at Sinai. Yet, where would the later generations of Israel be if someone hadn’t taken the time to write it all down?

Later posts will focus on the specific lessons that God taught them, yet a cursory glance might prove helpful.

God taught them to trust him when he sent them manna every morning. He taught them who he was when he descended on Mt. Sinai with lightning, fire, and thunder. God taught them the importance of holiness as regards to his presence when he gave them the Tabernacle. He taught them obedience when he gave them the Ten Commandments.

Approach the First Term with open eyes to recognize the lessons that God is teaching you. Write them down in a journal as a testimony of how God formed them. As Sinai was a capstone moment for Israel, so too the first term is a moment that you can point to and say, “God met me there!”

Resist the Temptation to Rush

What happened when the People of Israel grew discontent at Sinai? They rushed and built a Golden Calf.

The People of Israel waited on Moses to come down from the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. They were impatient and uncertain of what God was doing and so they took matters into their own hands in order to get out of the liminal and uncertain space of Sinai.

The Golden Calf speaks a warning to those in liminal spaces: don’t miss this sacred moment because you have your eyes focused on the promised land just beyond this time.

Language school is temporary. Don’t miss the important lessons because you are too focused on the next step.

It’s not that the next step isn’t important, it’s that the current season is equally important. What God does in this season is forming you to be the person and global worker that he can use in the next season.

So, in this season at language school or whatever liminal moment you find yourself, don’t rush and miss what God is trying to do in this transitional and sacred space of your first term.

Conclusion

The first term is not a detour but a destination in God’s formation process. Like Sinai, it is a sacred and transitional space that prepares us for the ‘promised land’ of future ministry. Don’t rush through the wilderness—embrace it. Let God shape you into the person He has called you to be, fully grounded in His strength and His purposes. This moment matters.

The first term is a transitional, yet sacred space, that God uses to form us into what he desires. Don’t miss this moment. Recognize it as sacred. Learn the lessons that he is teaching you. Be content to remain there until he is finished with you!

Look out for more posts like this soon! Until then, check out our archives here!